Three of A Kind (The X-Files) - Broadcast and Reception

Broadcast and Reception

"Three of a Kind" first aired in the United States on May 2, 1999. This episode earned a Nielsen rating of 8.2, with a 12 share, meaning that roughly 8.2 percent of all television-equipped households, and 12 percent of households watching television, were tuned in to the episode. It was viewed by 12.94 million viewers. The episode aired in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Sky1 on July 4, 1999 and received 0.87 million viewers, making it the second most watched episode that week. Fox promoted the episode with the tagline "What's gotten into Scully? Tonight, when Scully hits Vegas, you'll see a side of her you've never seen before."

The episode received mostly mixed reviews from critics, with many noting that the episode served as a stop-gap. Robert Shearman and Lars Pearson, in their book Wanting to Believe: A Critical Guide to The X-Files, Millennium & The Lone Gunmen, rated "Three of a Kind" two-and-a-half stars out of five, calling the episode "likeable and good-natured, and utterly redundant, this passes forty-five minutes pleasantly enough, but you'll be hard pushed to remember them afterwards". Paula Vitaris from Cinefantastique gave the episode a moderately positive review and awarded it two-and-a-half stars out of four. Vitaris noted that the episode did "an adequate job, but all in all, this is a filler episode, more substitutes than the real thing".

Tom Kessenich, in his book Examination: An Unauthorized Look at Seasons 6–9 of the X-Files wrote that, "'Three of a Kind' took the premise and ran with it, offering up a quasi-entertaining effort that indulges 's paranoia, banishes Mulder from sight and offers up a very flirtatious Dana Scully. It was all cute and harmless. Kinda like The Lone Gunmen themselves." Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club awarded the episode a "B+" and called it "the second part of a story which didn’t really need one" but also noted that the "laid-back, let’s just hang out and have some fun vibe" of the episode made the entry "very, very easy to watch." Furthermore, he praised the scene wherein Scully is drugged, calling it "hilarious" and "glorious".